The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation » Vicente and Landelius received the 2000 Awardhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net
Just another WordPress weblogMon, 30 Mar 2015 14:39:31 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.2Oscar Vicentehttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/oscar-vicente-186/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/oscar-vicente-186/#commentsWed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=1348Oscar Aníbal Vicente is one of those people who do not forget their past. He remembers it and turns that memory into a thing of pride, a driving force in his life. His story is the typical case of a child born into an environment of necessity, who, through sheer will and hard work, managed to successfully break into the wider world of business. What sets aside this corpulent and candid man from the rest is his constant return to a part of his life which he does not dismiss because he understands that there lie his roots, the very essence of his true being.

Since 1993 as Vice-President of the non-governmental organization Casa Argentina en Jerusalem and since 1997 at the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, he has put together, in an exemplary way, activities that are geared toward an issue that is constantly spoken and written about but is very seldom marked by any substantial actions: the co- operation between a business corporation and a non-governmental organization.

It is in this environment of achievement and constant reflection on complex problems in which Vicente creates an educational and harmonious organizational profile. He does this together with two other entrepreneurs for whom life wasn’t always a bowl of cherries either: Baruch Tenembaum, an Argentine ‘gaucho’ born in Las Palmeras, one of the Baron Hirsch colonies in the Santa Fe province and Natalio Wengrower, head of SICA, a leading electro-mechanical company.

Fruits of this labor produced other events such as the Raul Soldi fresco at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth; the ”Righteous Among the Nations” and ”Diplomacy and the Holocaust” programs, initiatives that seek to make known deeds of non-Jewish people who saved Jews during the Holocaust; the 1995 interview with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican along with Emilie Schindler; his presence in 1996 at the Organization of American States in Washington DC along with Argentine author, Adolfo Bioy Casares in order to present a new educational program and the unveiling, along with Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lech Walesa, of the Mural dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust erected inside the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires in April 1997.

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1938: Was born in Cañuelas on July 4. Married Perla Rocco. Two children.

1965: Obtains the title of Mechanical Engineer at the La Plata University.

1966: Engineer of Petroleum Mining at the National University of Buenos Aires.

1966-1970: Works for YPF in the Salta and Mendoza provinces. Drilling, Termination, and Reparation of Petroleum Wells Division.

Since 1988: President of the Chamber of Hydrocarbons Producing Companies.

1992: Co-founder of the BCSD (Business Council of Sustainable Development) in Argentina. President up to the beginning of 2000.

Since 1997: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Perez Companc S.A.

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/oscar-vicente-186/feed/0Peter Landeliushttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/peter-landelius-540/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/peter-landelius-540/#commentsWed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=1350Peter Landelius honours the legacy of his colleague Raoul Wallenberg; he uses diplomacy as a tool to serve people and the common good, and also, being a man of letters, as a vehicle for the transmission of culture.

Apart from Swedish, his mother tongue, Peter Landelius is fluent in German, Spanish, French, English, and Russian. Through the years, he has published two books of essays and a number of literary and political newspaper articles. In an extensive career as a translator, he has become the Swedish voice of some of the best hispanic writers: i.a., Pablo Neruda (” 20 love poems and a desperate song”), César Vallejo (”Full of world” – collected poems), Julio Cortázar (”Hopscotch”), Gabriel García Márquez (”Love in the times of cholera”, ”Cronicle of a death foretold” and others), Ernesto Sábato (”On heros and graves”), Eliseo Diego (”The days of your life” ), Mario Benedetti (”Another notion of fatherland” ), Benito Pérez Galdos (”Fortunata and Jacinta”), and Leopoldo Alas ”Clarín”(”La Regenta”).

In 1982 he won the literary prize ”Novella” in Sweden and in 1986, the Royal Silver Medal for Fine Arts in Spain. In 1991, the Swedish Academy of Science awarded him the Letterstedt prize, and in 1993, he won the national Elsa Thulin prize for translation. His diplomatic endeavours were distinguished in 1996 with the Order of the Liberator in Venezuela, the Quetzal Order of Civilian Merit in Guatemala, the Order of Military Merit and that of Civilian Merit in Spain, and the Order of Civilian Merit in Peru.

This unusual and successful combination of diplomatic and intellectual virtues make Ambassador Landelius an example to younger generations and public servants for his honesty, his capacity, and his human values.

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1943 : born in Solna, Sweden. Married to Nancy Julien, four children.

1965-67: LLD , with an emphasis in international law, and a BA in Russian language and civil law, Univ. of Uppsala.

1967: Attaché, Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

1968: Second secretary, London. 1970: Second secretary, Permanent Delegation to the OECD.

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/peter-landelius-540/feed/0Message from the President of the Republic of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana Arango, to the IRWFhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/message-president-republic/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/message-president-republic/#commentsWed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=1352

In the past few days I have been informed of the projected construction of a monument to the Righteous Among the Nations in front of the River Plate river in Buenos Aires. Proposed by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, it consists of a suspended concrete platform that points like an arrow towards Jerusalem. Under it we find an ecumenical chapel. The 15,670 names of the people who silently fought against the Shoah are going to be engraved on one of its concrete walls. The triangula structure as a whole, with its man-made coastline, penetrates the solemn and powerful course of the river.

I believe that this monument, the first of its type in the world, perfectly sums up the life of Raoul Wallenberg and those who, like him, make us recall that ethics and dignity should never be abdicated to power: there, on the plaque raised towards the heavens, we find the elevation of those, who with much danger and sacrifice, managed to go above everyday interests and ponder the interests of humanity as a whole. The river, challenging and uncertain, looks like that threatening power that we must face if we wish for the triumph of reason over cruelty. This is the line between the powers of compassion and the forces of hate. Over this frontline, located with unparallel precision, is a place for ingathering and solidarity. A place where all the creeds can meet. I believe that there, at that conjunction, the exemplary lives of the Righteous Among the Nations will be adequately represented.

These works invite us to alway remember that we should never let good be silenced. Edmund Burke said, ”All that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.” Raoul Wallenberg saved 60,000 lives in Hungary, but, had there been other who did the same, had they not closed their eyes to the barbarianism, the history of the twentieth century and the dimensions of suffering would have been different.

It is for this reason that the works of art in New York, London, and Buenos Aires or the educational projects undertaken by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in Argentina under the leadership of Baruch Tenembaum, press us to never lose sight of justice and compassion. This is a task that no one, much less Heads of State, should abandon to Providence. All men should remain active, organized and disposed to risk themselves when it comes to preserving integrity and sympathy. Without them, not only politics, but rather life itself loses meaning.

With all this in mind, I have no choice but to whole-heartedly integrate myself, in my position as an Honorary Member, to the Foundation’s initiatives, lauding the work of its members and congratulating the winners of the ”Raoul Wallenberg 2000” Award, businessman Oscar Vicente and Ambassador Peter Landelius, for preserving,through their dedicated hard work, the memory of one of the greatest heroes of the past century.

With immense sadness, philosopher Theodor Adorno said that after Auschwitz it was impossible to think. I believe that the task now is to maintain our thoughts and hearts alert so that Auschwitz, and all the other holocausts that ail our planet, should simply remain a bad memory and never again threaten us as an impending reality.

Congratulations on your work and may God accompany us.

Andrés Pastrana Arango
President of the Republic Colombia

]]>http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/message-president-republic/feed/0Oscar Vicente and Peter Landelius received the Raoul Wallenberg Award 2000http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/oscar-vicente-peter-landelius-360/
http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/awards/wallenberg-21/w2000/oscar-vicente-peter-landelius-360/#commentsThu, 14 Dec 2000 00:00:00 +0000adminhttp://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?p=1341On December 14, 2000, The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation presented the Raoul Wallenberg 2000 Award. This award, which is being offered for the first time, was presented to Oscar Vicente, CEO of Perez Companc Holding and Peter Landelius, Swedish Ambassador to Argentina. This new distinction was created with the purpose of recognizing the exemplary conduct of individuals with rectitude and outstanding performance in their respective occupations as well as their thorough and continuous support of non-governmental organizations.

Nicholas Tozer, journalist and member of the IRWF was the moderator at the event, which was attended by more than two hundred people at the Swedish Ambassador’s residency. Rodolfo Terragno and Mario Ablin, director of the Jerusalem headquarters of the organization, were the speakers.

Oscar Vicente received the award from Walter Schmale, Engineer and Director of Perez Companc Co. and the Apostolic Nuncio of Argentina, Monsignor Santos Abril y Castelló. Ambassador Landelius received the medallion, a bronze piece designed by Argentine artist Norma D’Ippólito. The United States Ambassador to Argentina, James Walsh, handed it to him, accompanied by Grand Rabbi Salomón Ben Hamú.

An unexpected occurrence took place when the Apostolic Nuncio asked to be given the floor and transmitted a special greeting from Pope John Paul II to the IRWF and the awardees. The message was transmitted through a telegram sent by the Secretary of the Vatican State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

Among the numerous statements received, some stood out, such as those of Rudolph Giuliani, Mayor of New York City; Ehud Barak, the Former Premier of Israel; Nane Annan, Raoul Wallenberg’s niece and the wife of the General Secretary of the United Nations; those of the presidents of Lithuania, Hungary, Latvia and Slovenia. Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, also sent a personal letter of congratulation. The President of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana Arango, mailed a special message.

The IRWF is an NGO founded by Baruch Tenembaum, Natalio Wengrower and Tom Lantos (US Congressman saved by Wallenberg in 1944). Raoul Wallenberg is the Swedish diplomat of Protestant origin who saved the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews condemned to death by the Nazi Regime in 1944. The Soviet Army kidnapped him in January 1945 and his fate is still unknown.